A task force created to address Christopher Newport University’s history of displacing a Newport News Black neighborhood is currently in motion.

The Shoe Lane Joint Task Force held a community meeting at City Life Church to showcase their work.

The task force was established last January by Mayor Phillip Jones and CNU President William G. Kelly to research the decisions to displace people who lived in the Shoe Lane neighborhood in the early 1960s.
Vice Mayor and Task Force Co-Chair Curtis Bethany addresses attendees of the Shoe Lane Task Force community meeting. James W. Robinson/The Daily Press

The task force includes City Vice Mayor Curtis Bethany and University Provost Quentin Kidd as co-chairs with Regina Brayboy, Vidal Dickerson, Joni L. Ivey and Cleon M. Long as fellow members. Brayboy is a member of CNU’s Board of Visitors and serves as chair of the President’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion. Dickerson serves as the university’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. Ivey previously served as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott while Long serves as a Newport News council member.

Research of Shoe Lane’s displacement as well as interviews with families and descendants who have been impacted are underway. The process has taken longer than anticipated, said Brayboy, due to the number of properties and individuals involved. Eight families have been interviewed so far, said Council Member Marcellus L. Harris III.

“Each parcel, each family, each record represents a story,” Brayboy said. “Those stories deserve to be treated with accuracy and respect.”

Along with research of deeds and archival documents, the task force’s work plan includes providing a website that features the neighborhood’s timeline, history, documents and more.

The work would then help in drafting a report and policy recommendations to the city, state and the university. The group hasn’t set a completion date.

Quentin Kidd, Christopher Newport University provost and task force co-chair, showcases the Shoe Lane Task Force website that showcases the neighborhood’s timeline, history, documents and more. James W. Robinson/The Daily Press
Bethany said the meeting was a great start to having the community involved in the process. He noted the families who were impacted have been their main priority since the beginning, and that communication with the public will be different compared to the families.

“We’re constantly in communications with (the) families,” Bethany said.

Hampton resident and Newport News native Audrey Perry Williams said she was “very pleased” with the meeting. The president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s Hampton Roads branch said she’s been involved since taking part in the university’s first panel on the issue. Williams, 79, said her focus is ensuring the history is accuracy being told.

Shauna Franklin Epps of the Hidenwood community said she used to live on Moores Lane, which was part of the university’s encroachment of Black families. Epps, 76, said she’s curious on “what reparations will look like.”

Hampton resident Pearl Smith also said she lived on Moores Lane. Smith, 80, said she wondered why Shoe Lane was chosen to be taken by eminent domain.

“What was their reason for uprooting us out of that community?” said Smith.

For more information on the Shoe Lane neighborhood, its displacement and the Task Force, go to library.nnva.gov/368/The-Shoe-Lane-Task-Force.

James W. Robinson, 757-799-0621, james.robinson@virginiamedia.com.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/11/03/shoe-lane-task-force-update/